xii ROBERT BLAKEY 



The book was — " Hints on Angling. With Suggestions 

 for Angling Excursions in France and Belgium, to which 

 are appended some brief notices of the English, Scottish, 

 and Irish waters. By Palmer Hackle, Esq. London : 

 Robinson, 1846. XVI. 339 pp. 8vo." It was dedicated 

 "To the Young Anglers of England (a noble and 

 adventurous race)." 



This is, without room for question, the best of 

 Blakey's angling books, as it was the longest. Portions 

 were afterwards introduced in the book now republished, 

 but it never ran into a second edition, while Angling ; 

 or. How to Angle, and Where to Go, originally published 

 by Eoutledge in 1854, has run into five subsequent 

 editions, and is, as this edition fully testifies, still 

 running. Palmer Hackle's Hints are in constant request ; 

 and in the matter relating to the waters of Prance and 

 Belgium, these have never been so thoroughly described, 

 either before or since, by any English writer. It was, 

 and is, an excellent treatise on angling in all its branches. 



As a writer on angling, Blakey came in some measure 

 as a link between two schools. Amongst the older 

 authorities were Salter, Jesse Stoddart, and Hofland ; 

 Blakey and Ephemera (Fitzgibbon of Bell's Ldfe) were 

 contemporaries ; and then came the schools of which 

 Francis Francis, whose first work appeared in 1858, was 

 leader and master. 



But Blakey's pen was dipping all the while in his 

 favourite philosophies. He wrote a History of Political 

 Literature from the Earliest Times, the History of the 

 Philosophy of the Mind, a Historical Sketch of Logic, 

 and a number of kindred books. Two years after the 

 publication of Hints on Angling, Palmer Hackle, Esq., 

 after prodigious eff'orts, succeeded in securing the 

 appointment of Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in 

 Queen's College, Belfast. 



Working hard at all points, he was generally, never- 

 theless, able to say that he was " put about for money " ; 

 and later on we find him at Glasgow, doing his best for 

 his family, the sons having grown up sufiiciently to 

 require a start in life. In 1850 he took up his abode 



